Spring beckons to us, the season of renewal and our gratitude for the natural world in all its awakenings. Here in Georgia we watch crocus and daffodil, quince flowers, Forsythia, a few early redbuds. And leaf buds on oaks begin to swell.
And politics swells also, the flow of venom matches the flow of sap in our trees. Keep your head down.
A good friend has advised me, the purpose of my blog is to advertise my western writing. Avoid politics, he said, and religion, since these topics will alienate some who you want to reach. Good advice.
Ecologists attempt to understand how natural systems work. Environmentalists attempt to influence legislation.
I’m an ecologist. But sometimes…
Just finished reading Censoring Science, by Mark Bowen, about the way that politicians distorted the scientific reports of Jim Hansen about global warming. The book isn’t very well-written, the time line is confusing and it’s filled with alphabet soup.
The message is clear, however. Bowen shows how the Bush White House, and over-reaching, kiss-up underlings, consistently distorted the implications of scientific findings.
Bowen makes a good point – Skeptics doubt the result of the analysis for scientific reasons. Doubters object to the result on other grounds – political or religious?
Early on, I was a skeptic. Not about global warming, which is obvious, but that human activities could influence the earth’s climate engine.
I was wrong. The data are in. We humans are snowballing this climate change, and it’s time to stop it.
How? Now, that’s another story.